All Your 8mm Are Belong To UsAs stupid as it sounds, coming up with a clever title has held up this post for nearly a day. I apologies for the flashback like it's 1998.
The point is, last year about this time I posted about a film screening that I attended called Attack of the "Fifty Foot Reels." The idea is each of the selected film makers are given one roll of Super-8mm film and challenged to created a 3 minute short film shot all in order, no edits, no second takes.

Well this year I am one of those selected film makers. After several re-writes and false-starts, I have completed my film and sent it off to the screening organizer. I have to give the Mad Props to my cast and crew with out whom I would have been dead in the water. I shot my film on a co-workers vintage Nizo Super-8 camera over a couple of days last week, and I am very excited to see the results. You see, the film will screen on November 10th at the Egyptian Theater and that will be the first time I (or anybody else) will see the results!

The biggest challenge of the whole thing was telling a story in 3 minutes, and then sticking to that pace while shooting. In fact I ran out of film (or "rolled-out" as they say in teh buisness) sometime during my last few shots, but didn't realise until I was through. Thus the ending will be a surprise to everybody (including me!) The film, "Grindstone," is about a struggling writer and the little things he enjoys to get through the rat-race. But really shows him as a slave to "little addictions" that sap his energy and ability to be creative after the grueling 9-5 day. Contrary to popular belief it was conceived less as autobiographical and more as a universal fear. The audience for the screening is a lot of "hipster filmmakers" and it was my goal to create a film that most of the audience could relate to.

The shoot was fantastically fun, and it was a real rush to be in-charge of a shoot again (it had been WAY too long.) So, if you are around LA on November 10th, head on up to the screening and help cheer me on (or cheer me up if nothing comes out!)